NEW YORK – Pakistan is so busy fighting its own Islamist militants that it can do little more to help NATO forces battling in neighbouring Afghanistan, NATO’s top civilian there said on Monday.
Mark Sedwill, senior civilian representative for the Western military alliance in Afghanistan, said Pakistani attitudes were hardening toward guerrilla groups that had previously been supported by the state. “In the past, they had relations with various groups,” he told the Asia Society think tank in New York, but now “I think there has been a shift”.
However, there are limits on what Pakistan can do to stem the flow of militants entering Afghanistan to fight NATO troops. “To be honest, the Pakistanis are preoccupied with those domestic threats. This is out of hand,” Sedwill said.
